Mom: I saw man on my daughter

A district judge has ordered Nolvis Rivera-Garcia to stand trial in the… (DONNA FISHER, THE MORNING…)

September 09, 2011|By Pamela Lehman, Of The Morning Call

After calmly recounting the summer day when she found her 7-year-old daughter pinned on the stairway by a shirtless man with his pants down, the Allentown woman lost her composure when she walked by the alleged attacker Friday in a Lehigh County courtroom.

The woman started sobbing as she passed Nolvis Garcia-Rivera, 36, of Allentown, who was ordered by District Judge Donna Butler to face trial in county court on charges of sexual assault and attempted rape.

When Garcia-Rivera was found shortly after 4 p.m. July 17, he was on the ground with blood on his face. Police then learned he was a suspect in a sexual assault that happened a few minutes earlier, according to court testimony.

Police still do not know who attacked Garcia-Rivera, but said it may have been bystanders or relatives of the girl who learned of the alleged assault, said his attorney, Kathryn Elizabeth Roberts.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Matthew Falk declined to comment after the hearing.

According to court testimony:

The woman said she lives in an apartment on Sixth Street with her daughter and son. The girl wanted to ride her bike, but the boy cried for a glass of juice. The woman told her daughter to ride to her grandmother's home nearby, then went back into her apartment.

The woman repeatedly called her mother to make sure the girl had arrived, but no one answered the phone. She called a few other relatives before running outside to look for her daughter.

She went to the back of her home, then looked through windows in the front door and saw a man later identified as Garcia-Rivera with his pants down and her daughter under him.

"She looked scared," the woman said. "I yelled, I scratched him, I punched him. I did what I could. He looked surprised and didn't say anything."

The woman said Garcia-Rivera pulled up his pants and ran outside and her brother went after him. She asked her daughter what happened.

"She said, 'He told me two things. A good and a bad thing. If I screamed, he would kill me. If I didn't yell, he wouldn't,' " the woman said.

The woman said she didn't know Garcia-Rivera.

When Garcia-Rivera was found in a parking lot in the 200 block of Lehigh Street, he smelled of alcohol and had a crack pipe in his pocket, Allentown police officer Anthony Socca testified.

The officer said that when he asked what happened, Garcia-Rivera said he was "jumped."

In addition to attempted rape, Garcia-Rivera is charged with aggravated indecent assault, indecent exposure, indecent assault, corruption of minors and possession of drug paraphernalia. He remains in Lehigh County Prison under $250,000 bail.